Mediterranean sharks and rays need action
Marco Milazzo, Carlo Cattano, Sara Al Mabruk, Ioannis Giovos
Abstract
After news spread that endangered sharks were being openly sold off in chunks in marketplaces in Tunisia, more than 30 nongovernmental organizations appealed to Tunisian authorities to put an end to the practice (1). In response, the Tunisian government circulated a note to fishery officials at ports to enforce the ban on catching, landing, and marketing of 21 out of 24 species of sharks and rays listed on Annex II of the Barcelona Convention (2), pending the inclusion of these species in the national legislation. This is a positive step in the protection of these species, given that Tunisia has the largest North African fishing fleet (3), second only to Libya for shark fishing in the Mediterranean, and that North African countries landed 70% of Mediterranean elasmobranch catches in 2018 (4).